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Miley Cyrus praises Ashley Judd after dissing anorexia talk

April 10, 2012 | 5:41
pm

Miley Cyrus, who on Sunday night dismissed eating-disorder rumors, was giving props to Ashley Judd on Tuesday after reading the latter's article slamming the national media for its recent discussion of her looks.

"Thank you @AshleyJudd," Cyrus said, responding to a tweet in which Judd marveled at the positive response to her words in the Daily Beast. "This article was music to my ears. Beautifully said and beyond inspiring. I hope everyone woman reads this."

Praise for Cyrus' recently slimmer appearance gave way to talk of anorexia Sunday night after she posted a picture showing her breathing deeply from bag of Carl's Jr. food, with the caption, "I can't eat it. So I'm just gonna smell the ... out of it! My mouth is LITERALLY watering."

Let the games begin, right? But Miley wasn't having any of it,

"For everyone calling me anorexic I have a gluten and lactose allergy," she said an hour later. "It's not about weight it's about health. Gluten is crapppp anyway!"

Judd's article addressed the media and public frenzy that surrounded a March 20 TV appearance, after which her supposedly "puffy" appearance was the subject of rampant speculation by many outlets about what she'd done to get her face looking like that. Cosmetic fillers? Plastic surgery gone wrong? Her rep released a statement saying the actress had been ill and was suffering the effects of prednisone use. Most comments along the way were not kind.

"It doesn’t actually matter if we are aging naturally, or resorting to surgical assistance," Judd wrote. "We experience brutal criticism. The dialogue is constructed so that our bodies are a source of speculation, ridicule, and invalidation, as if they belong to others -- and in my case, to the actual public," Judd said before calling on other women to start a conversation getting at the roots of such "blatantly gendered, ageist, and mean-spirited content."

Which brings us back to Miley Cyrus and her body (which she unfortunately revealed a bit too much of while wearing a miniskirt in front of paparazzi last week).

After that explanatory I'm-not-anorexic tweet and a couple of follow-ups, including one suggesting "everyone should try no gluten for a week!," came yet another a wave of criticism -- this time over the wisdom of recommending a gluten-free diet for those who aren't allergic to the protein found in wheat.

Oy vey.

In Miley's case, at least when it comes to eating things like cake and drinking beer, we have to wager that the benefits of avoiding gluten will ultimately go way beyond helping her physical health.